Plaza Design Closing – February 28, 2012

PLAZA – Plaza Design, one of the retail icons of the Arcata Plaza, will close its doors at the end of March.

A rental truck offloads merchandise from the Eureka Plaza Design for consolidation in the Arcata store on Monday. Lauraine Leblanc | Eye

The Eureka location has already closed without notice. Inventory from the Eureka store is being consolidated into the Arcata Plaza Design.

Alissa Hall, manager of the Eureka store, was on hand in the Arcata store on Monday, Feb. 27 to supervise the assimilation of the merchandise. Local woodworkers whose work was for sale at the store were already in the process of removing their wares.

“It’s been a tough economy,” said Hall, in response to queries regarding the store closing. “The writing has been on the wall for some time.”

Hall also noted that Plaza Design currently employs fewer than ten staff, but that some have been with the company for more than 17 years.

Julie Fulkerson, who founded Plaza Design 30 years ago and sold it in 2007, found out about the closure Monday afternoon. She still owns the building in which the store is housed.

Fulkerson recalled how the business evolved from a modest shop in Jacoby’s Storehouse to the large store it is today – but won’t be for much longer.

“Part of me is pretty sad,” Fulkerson said. She said she used to keep a sign in the store reminding employees of the constant need to keep things fresh, which read, “Nothing is ever the same.” But, said Fulkerson, “This is a much bigger, ‘Nothing is ever the same.’”

While there are plans in the works for the Arcata location to hold a closing sale, all merchandise is not currently marked down.